


running our own way home

by biochemprincess



Series: (we won't go to war) we're getting away [1]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-05
Updated: 2015-08-05
Packaged: 2018-04-13 04:23:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,063
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4507614
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/biochemprincess/pseuds/biochemprincess
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jemma resurfaces after being swallowed by the Kree Stone. May drives her home.</p>
            </blockquote>





	running our own way home

* * *

 

prompt: maysimmons + 7. things you said while we were driving 

 

* * *

 

The silence was mutual.

May had turned off the radio right after starting the engine a few hours back and she hadn’t turned it on, when Jemma had opened the door to the car at a gas station in the middle of nowhere.

They hadn’t exchanged a single word since.

She threw a glance at the girl in the passenger seat. Her head was leaning at the windowpane. She almost looked asleep, but May could see the reflection of her eyes, gazing into the pitch black darkness of the desert.

Jemma reeked of dirt and sweat, her lavender coloured shirt was stained with blood and other unidentified liquids. The jeans was torn in some places and she only wore one shoe, the other was barefoot.

(It weren’t the same clothes she had last seen her in.)

But it didn’t matter.

Jemma was back, alive and in one piece.

May desperately wanted to ask her if she was okay, but she could sense Jemma’s discomfort. She wouldn’t ask as long as Simmons didn’t want to talk about.

A strange tension ran through her body, apparently the only thing holding her upright after all. Her body looked tired, but her eyes and mind were alert.

Simmons shifted, a painful expression clouding her face.

“Are you hurt?”

“We need to find Ward.” Her voice was hoarse, quiet.

It wasn’t an answer, it only prompted another myriad of questions.

“We will, but are you hurt?”

“He’s the new head of HYDRA.”

It took May by surprise. They had spent every waking hour during the last three months trying to finding Jemma, after she had vanished. Nobody had slept anymore since the stone had — Well, nobody really knew what the stone had done to her. Only that she was gone.

(Her holiday hadn’t even started, when she had already gone back to search for her.)

So, truth be told, May hadn’t really bothered to think about Ward and what he was up to at the moment.

“How do you know?”

Jemma remained silent. She stared down at her one shoe, covered in mud. Her fingers played with a pink-white plastic bracelet on her left wrist.

The phone call had been unexpected.

_Hi, here’s Jemma. I don’t know where I am exactly. But maybe Skye could trace the call back and —_

Skye had done exactly that and traced the call back to a phone booth somewhere in the desert of Nevada. Due to a lead they had been near anyway, and so May had taken the jeep to collect her. She had told Fitz and Skye to stay back in the jet, to not overwhelm Jemma.

_I’ll be there._

“Simmons.”

“Please, we need to stop him.”

They were having two completely different conversations. But the urgency in her every word, made her pause.

May slowed down until the car came to a halt at the side of the road. She turned on the light inside the car to see Jemma’s face better. She looked out for injuries, but couldn’t find any.

“I’m not hurt. At least no severely. The blood isn’t mine.” Simmons explained.

“Good. But how do you know about Ward?”

“I can’t tell you.”

“Is it because of where you have been?”

It was out now, the question everyone had been asking for weeks. May didn’t want to push it, but also needed answers.

“I can’t tell you. I want to, you have to believe me. I do. But I can’t. Please believe me.”

She looked so desperate, so small, so young - not at all like the young woman she had met two years ago. Tears glittered in her eyes.

“I believe you.”

Simmons sighed in relief. Her body went soft, like a balloon losing air. She cleared her throat.

“We had a talk.”

“You and Ward?”

“No, you and me.”

May raised an eyebrow at her. But Simmons simply continued talking, ignoring her obvious confusion.

“Ward is the head of HYDRA now, but some of the men he recruits will overthrow him. And they’re worse than everything we have ever dealt with to date. We need to destroy HYDRA once and for all.”

Once again she asked herself how Jemma knew of such things. Neither Ward nor any recruits had been on their radar lately.

“What do you suggest?”

Simmons pulled a small piece of crumbled paper out of her jeans pocket and handed it over. The black ink was barely readable, but even now May could identify the handwriting. It was her own. Even though she was 100% sure she had never written it.

“Find Ward and put him into custody, before the worst. Not kill him, I don’t think that’s a good idea. Just stop him.” Jemma said out loud.

It was the first bullet point on the list, followed by names and other instruction, none of which made any sense.

“Simmons — ”

“Please don’t ask me.”

“I won’t.” And she really wouldn’t, not if it hurt Jemma.

“You keep your secrets safe.” Simmons said as a matter of fact.

She nodded. “I do.”

“And I keep mine.”

 _You shouldn’t have to._ But May nodded again.

She started the engine again and headed back onto the street. They drove for hours, through the endless night.

They fell into silence once more. With every mile closer to the quinjet, the sunrise came nearer. The first rays of light, bright yellow and warm orange, illuminated the horizon.

“Where the stone sent me —” Jemma began talking. They were almost at the finish.

“You don’t have to tell me, if you can’t.”

But Simmons shook her head. “I know you’ll keep my secrets too.” She took up the thread again. “There was this girl. Her name is Charlotte. She just lost her first baby tooth.”

Simmons pointed at one of her front teeth and smiled fondly, likely at the memory.

“She loves to read. Her favourite words are ‘why’ and ‘how’. She has Fitz’s eyes. And I want her to live in a better world than the one — We — I mean, she and her parents are always on the run, never safe. That’s why we have to do this.”

May didn’t question it, she knew Jemma told the truth. She tried to imagine the girl, with the tooth gap and blue eyes, and she smiled. She understood.

“We will.”

**Author's Note:**

> This was also written for a prompt, but I thought it to be long enough to qualify as one-shot and be posted on its own. Please let me know what you think about it. :)


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